


Across a Smoky Room

by swaneewhistleandkazoo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 6x03, Angst, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hopeful Ending, Insecure Leo Fitz, Post Season 6 episode 3, Reunions, So So Close!, They really are cursed are't they, Warning for spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 09:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18962101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swaneewhistleandkazoo/pseuds/swaneewhistleandkazoo
Summary: Fitz attempts to reunite with Simmons on the Planet Kitson and it all goes horribly wrong.Warning for Spoilers for 6x03.





	Across a Smoky Room

For the first time today or maybe even this year the plan works.

At Enoch’s spark the sulphurous blood ignites and to Fitz’s complete surprise and utter relief the weird alien blood reacts the way he’d hoped it to and explodes, with more force than he expected. The force was so great that it neatly blew the thick steel door of its hinges, catapulting it across the outside corridor and helpfully knocking the huge guard stationed outside the door off his feet.

That 75% sulphur blood sure was potent and he was so, so grateful that human blood did not have explosive properties otherwise he was pretty sure humanity would have exploded itself to extinction by now.

 _Jemma would have loved_ _this_ He thought sadly to himself and the rotten egg scented smoke crept up his nose, making his eyes water and threatened to choke him. _She’d have wanted me to take a sample for her to run some tests on._

Part of him, the part he didn’t like, whispered that he should take some of the alien’s blood or flesh with him just in case they ran into even more trouble (very likely) or even better to whole arm so he could have some collateral and some to run some experiments on.

That was the problem with remembering having lived as Evil Overlord in the Framework. The Doctor didn’t regret any of the bad things they did.

He had to be better so he’d be able to look Jemma in the eyes again and be the man she believed him to be, the man she saw when she looked at him. Before he’d killed Mace, shot Agnes right in front of her, the sound of her heartbrokenly screaming his name still woke him up in a cold sweat at what counted as night in space. And then he’d tortured her, worse he’d told her that she meant nothing to him.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In his head on the nights he couldn’t sleep he’d started to create a spread sheet, cataloguing his actions and analysing them in case the Doctor parts of him were finding a foot hold in his real life and changing him for the worst. In one column was all of his actions and thoughts that could be considered Evil Overlordy and in another column was any thoughts and actions that pointed back to him being the same as he was before the Framework.

Right now with all the things he’d done since he’d been yanked out of cryo sleep he wasn’t sure which column was winning at the moment.

 _Forget about that now Fitz_ He told himself sternly. _The only thing that matters is finding Jemma again. Then we can spend the rest of our life proving ourselves to her._

He glanced regretfully at the corpse of the unfortunately alien he’d had to dismember. At least his luck was better than that poor fellow. Silently he apologised to hapless bloke for using him and hoped that someone somewhere would miss him. Although considering the alien had been gambling away all his hard earned money and gotten shot with an arrow on this wretched hive of scum and villainy he wasn’t too hopeful for him.

But he had to find a way to get back to Jemma and he’d do whatever it took to find her again.

 _And the others_ he thought regretfully. He really should worry about them as well.

Another painfully strong waft of the sulphur tainted smoke hit him right in the olfactory nerve and was enough to jolt him out of his self-recrimination.

_Get moving you Idiot!_

As Fitz carefully picked his way around the strewn body parts to the raised lip of the airlock like door his mind were already racing ahead of his situation, figuring out the next steps of his escape plan and then getting a hold of a new cryo chamber and reuniting with Jemma and the others. Without waiting to see if his depressed new best friend was following him he strode off to at least get out of the room and stop breathing in the foul stench. It burned his eyes making them water and in a futile attempt to clear the air in front of his face he waved his hand back and forth like he was clearing away a crowd of midges. It didn’t really help but it made him feel a little less like he was going to start coughing.

The corridor was empty apart from the unconscious guard flattered by the door and a woman.

All brain function stopped, screeching to a jumbled halt.

The thought equivalent of a multi-car pileup on a motorway.

_Jemma?_

_She was here?_

_How was she even here? They’re in deep space and she’s supposed to be in the future?_

_Oh God, She was so beautiful….just as she always._

To say he was a little confused was the biggest understatement of maybe this millennium.

His first thought was that he was hallucinating again like he had after his brain damage and Jemma had left him and he’d been so, so very lonely without his best friend. Maybe the months of separation had finally gotten to him and his brain was trying to conjure an illusion in an effort to prevent his mental health from worsening.

He blinked slowly fully prepared for her to have disappeared when he opened them again. Nope she was still there staring back at him in an identical state of shock. That’s a good sign, whenever he’d hallucinated Simmons in the past she’s always been wearing clothes she’d worn before like his brain was too lazy to imagine her in something else.

His eyes started to water for reasons other than the smoke and he had to blink hard so he could just look at her.

Jemma’s breath hitched unevenly as her beautiful hazel eyes filled up with tears and a little sob escaped her, the heartbroken sound of it catching his heart and the his heart started demanding he do something to make whatever is upsetting her better.

She looked different from when he last saw her in that dinner chiding him to eat his dinner before Enoch had stunned them and she was wrenched away from him and sent through the white monolith to the future. It shouldn’t surprise him, it has been over a year since he last saw her but it does. He doesn’t care though all he can do it drink in her presence. Her hair is long and loose, he’s always liked it down and she’s had it cut into a fringe which he wasn’t really sure that it suited her but then what does he know about fashion.

She’s thinner too like she’d been neglecting herself and not eating properly. And then there are new faint lines of grief and grim tiredness on her face and her eyes are red rimmed with blown pupils. He had desperately hoped that the past year’s separation had been less hard on her than it had been on him but it didn’t look like it. Her black blouse shows off the curves of her body that he desperately wanted to re-familiarise himself with and a silvery ring on a chain rose and fell alluringly in the hollow of her throat. Which in itself is strange because Jemma had never really has been one for jewellery, it must be really important to her if she’s wearing.

None of these changes matter, She’s here only a few feet away from him. If he walked forward three paces she’d be in his arms again. But his feet are rooted to the ground in shock.  All he can do is stare at her and she just stared right back at him.

 _She’s here._ Was the only confused thought ricocheting around his brain.

The little insidious voice of The Doctor piped up. _But she isn’t supposed to be here._

Unfortunately his worse half had a point.

She and the others were supposed to be in the future. Enoch and Robin both promised him she’d been sent through the white monolith 74 years from now, he’d seen it happen and he was needed there in order to save her. But he couldn’t go through the monolith like they had; he’d had to find another way. That was why he’d been busting his ass, working like a slave on that stupid snail ship, unleashing his bad side with a trap just in case that piece of crap Controller double crossed him and Enoch, gambling on this god forsaken rock and basically doing various illegal and downright immoral things to try to get back to her.

But she is here and the greatest sight in the universe is happening because her lips are beginning to curl up in just about the happiest tearful smile he’s ever seen. 

 “Jemma?” Her name escaped him, even coloured with confusion is a benediction to him. Abruptly he made up his mind that it didn’t matter how she had found him or why she was here instead of the future, the only thing that mattered was that they had found each other again.

The last thought he’d had before he’d drifted off into cryo sleep was a promise to himself that the moment he saw Jemma again, no matter what was happening, he was going to ask her to marry him. Because how knew the next time they’d be ripped apart. Since he’d been so rudely awakened and in the last year of searching for a new cryo pod and the relentless insomnia he’d had plenty of time to craft the perfect proposal speech with everything he’d ever wanted to say to her in it.

Personally he thought it was very romantic.  

But at the moment he’s so struck dumb by her sudden reappearance in the present his mind had gone blank.

He’s so distracted by her being there and trying to remember ever part of his speech, after all he only has once chance for Jemma to hear it in its entirety, he doesn’t notice the flashes of orange light until hard, strong, cruel arms wrap around his waist and drag him away from her.

He tries to fight, to scrabble his way free and get back to her. But the bloke grabbing him, probably that hunter chronicom Enoch told him about, is too tall too strong and the last thing he sees before the orange light engulfs him is Jemma’s horrified expression as she loses him all over again.

He wanted to howl in pain of finding her and losing her again so quickly. Seriously five seconds it must be a new record for them.

 _Jemma!_ He screamed in his head hoping the psychic connection Daisy always believed they had was real and working. _Jemma Please don’t give up! I’ll find my way back I promise!_

At least Enoch will be with her, it’s some small comfort.

 At least he didn’t have to worry about finding a way to the future now. He only has to search the present for her now.

That was something, Right?

**Author's Note:**

> Argh, so so close.
> 
> The title was inspired by a line in "Don't stop believing" by Journey. Which I think is an appropriate song for this episode.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Your comments and kudos are as always deeply appreciated.


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